Daily CURRENT AFFAIRS

What is the news : Union government has appointed Anup Chandra Pandey, as Election Commissioner.

About the Election Commission of India:

The Election Commission of India (ECI) -

• Is an autonomous constitutional authority responsible for administering Union and State election processes in India.
• Was established in accordance with the Constitution on 25th January 1950 (celebrated as national voters' day). The secretariat of the commission is located in New Delhi.
• Body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, and State Legislative Assemblies in India, and the offices of the President and Vice President in the country.
• Not concerned with the elections to panchayats and municipalities in the states(For this, the Constitution of India provides for a separate State Election Commission)

Constitutional Provisions:

• Part XV (Article 324-329) of the Indian Constitution: It deals with elections, and establishes a commission for these matters.
• Article 324: Superintendence, direction and control of elections to be vested in an Election Commission.
• Article 325: No person to be ineligible for inclusion in, or to claim to be included in a special, electoral roll on grounds of religion, race, caste or sex.
• Article 326: Elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assemblies of States to be on the basis of adult suffrage.
• Article 327: Power of Parliament to make provision with respect to elections to Legislatures.
• Article 328: Power of Legislature of a State to make provision with respect to elections to such Legislature.
• Article 329: Bar to interference by courts in electoral matters.

Structure of ECI:

• Originally the commission had only one election commissioner but after the Election Commissioner Amendment Act 1989, it has been made a multi-member body
• The Election Commission shall consist of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and such number of other election commissioners, if any, as the President may from time to time fix.
• Presently, it consists of the CEC and two Election Commissioners.
• At the state level, the election commission is helped by the Chief Electoral Officer who is an IAS rank Officer.

Appointment & Tenure of Commissioners:

• The President appoints CEC and Election Commissioners.
• They have a fixed tenure of six years, or up to the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.
• They enjoy the same status and receive salary and perks as available to Judges of the Supreme Court (SC) of India.

Removal:

• They can resign anytime or can also be removed before the expiry of their term.
• The CEC can be removed from office only through a process of removal similar to that of a SC judge by Parliament.

Procedure of Removal

• Judges of High Courts and SC, CEC, Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) may be removed from office through a motion adopted by Parliament on grounds of ‘proved misbehaviour or incapacity’.
• Removal requires a special majority of 2/3rd members present and voting supported by more than 50% of the total strength of the house.

What is the news : The Education Ministry has laid down new guidelines for producing digital education resources for children with disabilities, after a year in which the COVID-driven shift to online education has spotlighted the lacunae in such resources.

Details : The closure of regular schools and learning centres due to COVID-19 has led to special difficulties for many disabled children. For instance, a recent study by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy showed that more than half of the NCERT textbooks available on the government’s virtual education platform DIKSHA were not accessible for visually impaired students.

What is inside it:

The guidelines

• Are based on four guiding principles, stipulating that all resources must be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust for disabled students.
• Recommend that all textbooks be made digitally accessible in a phased manner, so that they are available in multiple formats such as text, audio, video and sign language with turn-on and turn-off features. Det ailed technical standards have been provided.
• Provide strategies to produce supplementary content for varying disabilities, including students who face visual and hearing challenges, those on the autism spectrum, those with intellectual or special learning disabilities, and those with multiple disabilities.
• Note that learning activities must include audio, visual and tactile experiences, while evaluation must be multimodal.

What is the news : The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi has invited youngsters to know about YUVA: Prime Minister’s Scheme For Mentoring Young Authors, a national scheme for nurturing young learners for future leadership roles.

Details :

• The National Education Policy 2020 emphasises on empowering young minds & creating a learning ecosystem that can nurture young learners for future leadership roles.
• To foster this goal, and commemorate India’s 75 years of Independence, a national scheme YUVA: Prime Minister’s Scheme For Mentoring Young Authors will go a long way in cementing the foundation of these leaders of tomorrow.
• Essentially, the scheme envisions cultivating modern ambassadors of Indian literature as the country heads towards 75 years of independence. India is ranked 3rd in the arena of book publishing, and to further boost this treasure trove of indigenous literature, it is imperative that this is projected at the global stage.

NOTE : YUVA SCHEME IS COVERED IN PREVIOUS ISSUES

What is in news : Quacquarelli Symonds popularly called as QS World Rank of universities was recently released for the year 2022.

Key findings :

• Jawaharlal Nehru University has entered the top 1 ,000, as its new undergraduate engineering programme now makes it eligible for the rating
• 22 Indian institutions in the top 1,000 list compared to 21 last year, with the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras making major strides in rankings. Among the 22 Indian institutions in the top 1,000, four (IIT-Bombay, IISc, IIT Roorkee and OP Jindal Global University) have fallen in rank over the past 12 months.
• Seven (IIT-Delhi, IIT-Madras, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Guwahati, IIT-Hyderabad and Savitribai Phule Pune University) have risen in position. Last year, as many as 14 universities had fallen in rank, and only four had gained.
• IIT-Bombay continues to be India's best higher education institution for the fourth consecutive year, holding 177th position although it fell five places over the last year.
• IIT-Delhi comes next, rising from 193 to 185 over the last 12 months, overtaking IISc, which ranks 186th. IISc remains the world’s top research university, maintaining a perfect score of 100/100 for this metric.
• IIT Bombay maintained its position as the top Indian institution for the fourth consecutive year, although it fell five places in the global rankings to the joint 177th position
• IISc remains the world’s top research university, maintaining a perfect score of 100/100 for this metric.

About the QS World Subject Rankings:

• Quacquarelli Symonds (QS)

• Is a leading global career and education network for ambitious professionals looking to further their personal and professional development.
• Develops and successfully implements methods of comparative data collection and analysis used to highlight institutions’ strengths.

• Six parameters and their weightage for the evaluation:

1. Academic Reputation (40%)
2. Employer Reputation (10%)
3. Faculty/Student Ratio (20%)
4. Citations per faculty (20%)
5. International Faculty Ratio (5%)
6. International Student Ratio (5%)

• QS World University Rankings by Subject: It calculates performance based on four parameters — academic reputation, employer reputation, research impact (citations per paper) and the productivity of an institution’s research faculty.

Top Performers: Globally Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT -USA) and Harvard (USA) are among top performers, Russia and China record best-ever performances.

By : World Bank

Findings :

• World economy would expand at 5.6% and India’s economy is expected to grow by 8.3% in the fiscal year
• Global output would still end up 2% below pre-pandemic projection
• Economic activity in India would likely follow a similar but less pronounced ‘collapse and recovery’ trend seen during the first wave
• The pandemic will undermine consumption and investment as confidence remains depressed and balance sheets damaged
• Growth in FY2022/23 is expected to slow to 7.5% reflecting lingering impacts of COVID-19 on household, corporate and bank balance sheets; possibly low levels of consumer confidence; and heightened uncertainty on job and income prospects

What happens when an aircraft encounters turbulence:

• As a bare concept, turbulence means disruption of airflow over the wings of an airplane, which causes it to enter an irregular vertical motion.
• There are at least seven different kinds of turbulence which an aircraft can face.
• Turbulence can be weather-related, in which the plane flies through a thunderstorm or a heavy cloud, or it can be clear air turbulence, which is mainly caused by wind or jet streams.
• Other kinds of turbulence include “wake turbulence”, which forms behind an aircraft when it flies through air, creating wingtip vortices.

Are turbulence incidents dangerous:

• It depends on the nature and intensity of the turbulence. Aircraft face some form of turbulence on a regular basis, and pilots are trained to deal with these disturbances.
• However, there have been several instances of turbulence bringing down modern jetliners.
• But in these cases, while intense turbulence has been the main cause of an accident, several other contributory factors — such as lack of proper training, poor dissemination of weather- or wind-related information — have played a huge role in the accident

How can airlines avoid turbulence:

The FAA recommends that-

• Carriers should improve dispatch procedures by keeping communication channels open full-time
• Include turbulence in weather briefings; promote real-time information-sharing between pilot and despatcher
• Reinforce the carrier’s turbulence avoidance policy through despatcher training
• Consider re-routing using automation, atmospheric modelling, and data displays
• And use all applicable weather data as well as reporting and forecasting graphics.

What is the news : Eight passengers on board a Vistara flight from Mumbai to Kolkata on Monday, June 7, suffered injuries after the Boeing 737-800 encountered severe turbulence during its descent.

What is the news : Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has developed three types of cost-effective ventilators and an oxygen concentrator.

Details :

• 3 ventilators have been named as Prana, VayU and Svasta while oxygen cylinder has been named as Shwaas.
• All three are user-friendly and fully automated along with touch-screen specifications. It meets all safety standards.
• VSSC will transfer the Technology for commercial production of these three ventilators and one oxygen concentrator.

About Prana, VayU, Svasta and Shwaas

• Prana ventilator will deliver respiratory gas to patient by automated compression of Ambu bag
• Svasta ventilator will work without electric power
• VayU is a low-cost ventilator similar to commercial high-end ventilators in use.
• Shwaas oxygen cylinder is capable of supplying 10 litres of enriched oxygen per minute and is adequate for two patients at a time. It enhances oxygen gas content by selectively separating nitrogen gas from ambient air through Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA). PSA is commonly used for production of oxygen from the air.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC): VSSC is a major space research centre that focuses on rocket and space vehicles for satellite programmes in India.  It is located in Trivandrum (Kerala). It was renamed in honour of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai who is known as father of Indian space program.

What : Clinical trials of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy was conducted globally. Therapy has emerged as a breakthrough in cancer treatment. It has shown promising results on end stage patients, especially in patients of Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.

Details :

• BIRAC and DBT have initiated and launched specialised calls and invitation to promote and support development of CAR-T cell technology against cancer and other diseases.
• First CAR-T cell Therapy : First CAR-T cell Therapy was done by IIT Bombay and cancer care in India at Bone Marrow Transplant unit of Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai. CAR-T cells were designed and manufactured at Bioscience and Bioengineering (BSBE) department, IIT Bombay. This was also supported by BIRAC-PACE scheme. Now, this therapy will undergo Phase I and II trial of their CAR-T product through National Biopharma Mission.

What is in news : DST and Niti aayog supported EV Charging stations to be out soon

Details :

The station

• Serves 2 and 3 wheelers. Two- and three-wheelers account for about 80 per cent of vehicle sales in the country, and are a major source of vehicular emissions
• Being developed as a government-industry partnership, could be priced as low as Rs 3,500. Existing charging solutions cost anywhere between Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000
• Has been the result of an initiative led by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the government, and industry and research groups.
• Is an  all-weather charging device, that  can be installed in any place with access to a 220-volt, 15-ampere power line. Parking lots of Metro and railway stations, shopping malls, hospitals, office complexes, apartments and even small coffee shops or kirana outlets could be ideal spots.
• Has a charger, a smart electric socket capable of communicating with a mobile phone, and mobile apps with provisions to make payments.

NOTE : A full charge, from 0 to 100 per cent, can be done within half an hour to 45 minutes. With current batteries, a full charge is enough to travel 80 to 100 km in a city.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – FOCUS ARTICLE

Points to be noted :

• India needs to scale up genomic sequencing, across all States. There should be sufficient and representative samples collected for genomic sequencing to track district-level trends in circulating variants. More genomic sequencing is needed from large urban agglomerations. A national-level analysis of collated genomic sequencing data should be done on a regular basis and findings shared publicly.
• The Indian government needs to invest and support more scientific and operational research on vaccine effectiveness. The data should be analysed on a regular basis and should include various stratifiers such as age, gender and comorbid conditions, etc.
• The data from genomic sequencing has both policy and operational implications. The State and district officials should engage the epidemiologists in coming up with practical and operational implications and strategies. As Indian States plan to open up after COVID-19 restrictions, the settings with predominantly the Delta variant in circulation (which has higher transmissibility) should aim for far stricter adherence to COVID appropriate behaviour, in public places.
• Continuation of many unproven and ineffective therapies in COVID-19 treatment guidelines is proof that India is not quick in adopting evidence to the practice. There is a need for rapidly expanding genomic sequencing, sharing related data in a timely and transparent manner, and understanding of the impact of new variants on transmissibility, severity and vaccine effectiveness. The only assured way to fight the pandemic is to use scientific evidence to decide policies, modify strategies and take corrective actions. As India prepares for the third wave, increasing genomic sequencing and use of scientific evidence for decision making are not a choice but an absolute essential

INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

What is the news : India was elected to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for 2022-2024 term.

Details:

• India has been selected in Asia-Pacific States category. Other elected countries include Oman, Afghanistan and Kazakhstan.
• Elected African countries are- Cote d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Mauritius, Tunisia, and United Republic of Tanzania.
• Among eastern European states Croatia and Czech Republic were elected.
• Belize, Peru and Chile are among elected Latin American and Caribbean states.
• In by-election of Economic and Social Council, New Zealand & Denmark were elected for January to December 2022 term while Israel was elected for January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023.

What is ECOSOC:

ECOSOC is a 54-member Economic and Social Council, established in 1954 by a United Nations charter.

Functions of ECOSOC

• Being the heart of United Nations system, it helps in advancing economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.
• Central platform to foster debate & innovating thinking
• Shapes ways forward and coordinating efforts in a bid to achieve globally agreed goals
• Organises follow-up, major UN conferences and summits
• Promotion of high standards of living, full employment, economic & social progress, identifying solutions for global economic, social & health problems etc

• Karnataka state government is preparing to announce additional taxes and levies as part of its attempt to set up the Urban Transport Fund to support the metro corridor between Central Silk Board and Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) via the Outer Ring Road (ORR).

• Nand Kishore assumed charge as Chief General Manager (CGM), State Bank of India, Bengaluru circle, on Monday.

• NASA’s Juno spacecraft has provided the first close-ups of Jupiter’s largest moon Ganymede

• Foreign Minister of Maldives, Abdulla Shahid, was elected as new President of UN General Assembly (UNGA).

• Weyan, a remote village in Bandipora district of Jammu & Kashmir became India’s first village to vaccinate all its adult population against COVID-19.

• Ratings agency, CRISIL, has cut India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast from 11 percent to 9.5 percent for fiscal year 2021-2022.

• In a major boost to mango exports potential from eastern region, sixteen varieties of mangoes including three GI certified Khirsapati & Lakshmanbhog (West Bengal), Zardalu (Bihar) are being exported to Bahrain.APEDA has been initiating measures to boost mango exports from the non-traditional regions and states. APEDA has been conducting virtual buyer seller meet and festival to promote mango exports.

• The Government of India announced Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) to ameliorate the hardship faced by the poor due to economic disruption caused by Corona virus. Under the scheme, free food grains @ 5 kg per person per month is being distributed to beneficiaries covered under NFSA.Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana extended till Deepawali

• A webinar on India-Sweden Defence Industry Cooperation, with the theme ‘Capitalizing Opportunities for Growth and Security’, was organised recently. Defence minister invited Swedish firms to invest in defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh & Tamil Nadu.

• World Bank has approved a USD 500 million program to boost MSME sector in India.World Bank programme called “USD 500 million Raising and Accelerating Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Performance (RAMP) Program” aims to improve performance of five lakh 50 thousand MSMEs

• MIT engineers have discovered a new way of generating electricity using carbon nanotubes. A new material made up of carbon nanotubes have potential to generate electricity by collecting energy from its environment.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a law formalizing Russia’s withdrawal from Open Skies Treaty, after United States withdrew from pact in 2020.Open Skies Treaty is an international treaty that allow nations to collect information on one another’s military forces to increase transparency. United States withdrew from pact in November 2020 after accusing Russia of violating it.

EXPLAINED

• Dementia is an umbrella term for a range of conditions that involve a loss of cognitive functioning.
• Alzheimer’s dementia is the most common type and involves plaques and tangles forming in the brain.
• Forgetfulness and memory problems are often early symptoms, but as the illness progresses, patients tend to become confused, may lose their way around familiar places, and have difficulties with planning and completing simple tasks.
• According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates for 2017, dementia affects approximately 50 million people worldwide, a number that is projected to grow to 82 million by 2030.
• In India, it is estimated that 5.3 million people (1 in 27) above the age of 60 have dementia in 2020, according to the Dementia in India 2020 report published by the Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Society of India. This is projected to rise to 7.6 million by 2030.

CARBON NANOTUBES : CNTs are tubes made of carbon having diameter in nanometres. They are referred as single-wall carbon nanotubes and are one of the allotropes of carbon. They are intermediate between two allotropes of carbon- fullerene cages and flat graphene.